Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention relates to field installation and removal of movement objects/components from equipment fixtures and the like. These applications are typically within industrial environments where the movement objects are large, heavy, and difficult to manipulate.
This invention relates generally to the removal and/or installation of equipment from a wide variety of locations. It provides the necessary support mechanism, lifting mechanism and temporary storage of the equipment to be removed and/or installed. In addition, the invention is portable in nature and can be moved from location to location as needed.
Generally, power plants, co-generation power plants, chemical plants, petrochemical plants, refineries, dairies, tank farms, gas storage facilities, liquid natural gas storage facilities, manufacturing facilities and/or any facility that has tanks, vessels, piping, heat exchangers and/or equipment of any kind have had the need to install and/or remove (temporally or permanently) various components from the site or from the location that the component is installed, for a wide variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include but are not limited to:
1. maintenance of equipment and/or components,
2. replacement of equipment and/or components,
3. inspection of equipment or components, and/or
4. installation of equipment or components.
Current methods for temporary and/or permanent removal and/or installation of equipment and/or components rely on a number of options including:
1. Utilizing forklift trucks to lift the: item to be removed and/or installed (movement object).
2. Utilizing lifting tables to lift the movement object.
3. Utilizing a crane to lift the movement object.
4. Locating a structural member of the facility, near the movement object, securing some kind of a fixture to the structure and attaching a xe2x80x9cchain pullxe2x80x9d or other device to the fixture to support and remove and/or install the item.
Each of these methods has limitations and deficiencies.
Forklifts and lifting tables are suitable for use only from the floor. Items to be removed and/or installed, that are located beyond the reach of the forklift and/or lifting table or that are located in an area that is congested with other equipment such that the forklift or lifting table cannot be brought into reasonable proximity to the equipment to be removed and/or installed cannot reasonably be handled with these devices. In addition, not all facilities have forklift trucks and/or lifting tables.
Cranes have the ability to support, remove and/or install items from overhead. Items that are not within the range of the crane cannot be handled by the crane. Items that are in a congested and/or confined area may not be accessible to a crane. Not all facilities have a crane.
Suitable structural members may not be in reasonable proximity of the movement object thereby negating the possibility of installing a fixture on which to attach a xe2x80x9cchain pullxe2x80x9d or other device.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the size and weight of many of the components (such as manway covers and the like) make these normal operational and maintenance functions quite hazardous. Typical manway covers may weigh on the order of 50-2000 pounds or more and may be as much as 6-inches thick. As such, the potential that this equipment could fall and injure a worker is significant, and thus manipulating these objects should be considered a hazardous activity.
During the manufacture and/or fabrication of equipment, permanent devices have been used to provide a method of removal of components. These devices are permanent in nature in that they are affixed to the specific equipment and are used to facilitate removal of a specific item on the equipment only.
These devices are uniformly not portable and cannot be moved from location to location as needed. The actual design of these devices differs from the invention described herein. An example of one of these permanent structures (termed a xe2x80x9cdavitxe2x80x9d) is illustrated in FIG. 1. This exemplary structure will now be described in detail.
Referencing FIG. 1, the prior art davit (100) is illustrated from a top view (110) and an end-view (120). The davit (100) is attached to the outer ring of a manway flange (111) on which a manway cover (122) is fastened with bolts or other fastening means. The manway cover (122) is supported by a support rod (123) that is typically a threaded member approximately 0.75-inch in diameter. This support rod (123) is retained by one or more hexagonal nuts (124) or other fastening means that fix the support rod to a swingarm (125) that rotates within a pipe sleeve (127) that is permanently fixed to the manway flange (111) or some other support via a support plate (128).
To give some perspective on the unwieldiness of a conventional permanently attached davit system, the support rod (123) is typically 0.75-inch in diameter and is fixed by two 0.75-inch nuts (124) to a 2-inch diameter swingarm (125) that fits into a large pipe sleeve (127).
While the davit system is effective in removing a given manway cover, it suffers from the following disadvantages:
1. To be of use, the davit must be permanently installed on the manway flange. This is often not practical, as many times access to a manway cover occurs as an afterthought in plant maintenance.
2. There is added cost for fabrication/installation of the davit on each manway cover, regardless of whether the manway cover is accessed on a regular basis. This may be cost prohibitive in a large industrial plant.
3. There are safety concerns regarding the threaded member (123) and/or the fastening means (124) that may fail during installation/removal of the manway cover (122). The davit currently supports no failsafe mechanisms to prevent injury to maintenance personnel. Current equipment movement techniques that utilize lifting lugs/devices typically provide no failsafe method to prevent injury should the lifting lug/device fail or become compromised.
While one skilled in the art may find other deficiencies in the conventional davit construction and use, the above mentioned items are sufficient to indicate that any system and/or method that has the potential of eliminating any of these deficiencies would be welcome in the marketplace.
With respect to the present invention, the following non-exhaustive list of patents is relevant:
1. U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,958 issued to Evald Dunkelis on May 30, 1972 for VENT CLOSURE DEVICE.
2. U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,072 issued to Siddharth A. Shah, Sidney J. Woodcock, and Robert D. Fagan. on Oct. 27, 1981 for MANWAY HANDLING APPARATUS.
3. U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,649 issued to Thomas V. Labbe on Aug. 16, 1983 for PRIMARY MANWAY COVER REMOVAL.
4. U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,519 issued to Robert E. Meuschke, Donald G. Sherwood, and Bernard L. Silverblatt on May 28, 1985 for FUEL TRANSFER TUBE QUICK OPENING HATCH.
5. U.S Pat. No. 4,669,628 issued to Keizo Hatta on Jun. 2, 1987 for SAFETY DEVICE FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPENABLE AND CLOSABLE LID.
6. U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,513 issued to John J. Norris on Sep. 12, 1989 for PORTABLE MANWAY COVER HANDLING APPARATUS.
7. U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,520 issued to Franklyn J. Amorese, Robert R. Loomis, and Douglas H. Rigerman on Aug. 13, 1991 for MANWAY LIFT ASSIST.
8. U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,628 issued to Ian Ripley and Anthony H. Needham on Sep. 24, 1991 for TANK ENTRY PROCEDURE AND APPARATUS.
9. U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,963 issued to Richard J. Barker, Frank A. DiGiacomo, James M. Hardy, Robert F. Lamm, and Allen S. Malsbury on Mar. 3, 1992 for AUTOMATED TOP HEAD AND STEM GUIDE ASSEMBLY FOR COKING DRUMS.
10. U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,422 issued to William W. Wade and Vincent W. Eshnaur on Feb. 9, 1993 for SWING AWAY MANWAY ASSEMBLY.
11. U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,650 issued to Robert H. Dean on Mar. 7, 1995 for MANWAY COVER BALANCING MECHANISM.
12. U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,248 issued to Donald Willaughby on Jul. 11, 1995 for CONFINED SPACE LOWERING AND RETRIEVING APPARATUS.
None of these prior art citations discloses the teachings, features, and advantages of the present invention as described herein.
Accordingly, the objects of the present invention are (among others) to circumvent the deficiencies in the prior art and affect one or more of the following objectives:
1. Provide a device that can be quickly and easily installed to remove and/or install, support, and/or store an item or component.
2. Provide a device that can be used in confined or congested areas to remove and/or install, support, and/or store an item or component.
3. Provide a device that does not require its use from the floor to remove and/or install, support, and/or store an item or component.
4. Provide a device that is portable and that can be used as required in different locations to remove and/or install, support, and/or store an item or component.
5. Provide a device that one man can handle and install to remove and/or install, support, and/or store an item or component.
6. Provide a device that does not require welding for installation. Given that welding to some equipment structures (pressure vessels and the like) may adversely affect the integrity/reliability of the equipment structure, welding in many circumstances is not tolerable/permitted. An alternative to this procedure is required for these applications and applications in which the equipment structure is non-metallic.
7. Provide a device that may be used on non-ferrous and/or non-metallic equipment components. Since many equipment structures are constructed of non-metallic materials such as Fiberglass(trademark), a method of manipulating movement objects in this environment is highly desirable.
While these objectives should not be understood to limit the teachings of the present invention, in general these objectives are achieved by the disclosed invention that is discussed in the following sections.
The present invention consists of a fixture fabricated from structural members, rods (threaded or otherwise) pipe, pipe fittings and/or fasteners. A number of models and sizes are provided for various different sizes of equipment. The fixture is attached to a portion of the equipment or piping that is not to be removed and secured in place by tightening a number of nuts and/or bolts. Once the fixture is in place the swingarm assembly section is installed by inserting it into the retaining sleeve section of the fixture.
The swingarm post assembly is free to rotate within the retaining sleeve. The swingarm post assembly section contains an integral arm on which a threaded rod or other lifting mechanism is attached. This threaded rod or other lifting mechanism is used to lift the movement object to be removed and/or installed. Once the item to be remove and/or installed is attached to the threaded rod or lifting mechanism and is supported by the swingarm assembly, the swingarm assembly may be rotated within the sleeve thereby removing the movement object from its position and locating or installing the item to its desired position. The movement object can remain on the swingarm assembly for storage or temporarily for inspection.
Overall the present invention can in some exemplary embodiments provide one or more of the following advantages over the prior art:
1. The present invention may be constructed using standard structural members or components that are readily available. The use of custom fabricated or machined components is also possible but not required.
2. Worker safety is increased by eliminating dangerous procedures often used in a plant environment. A typical example of a dangerous procedure includes leaving one bolt in a manway cover at the 6 o""clock position and allowing the cover to xe2x80x9cswing down.xe2x80x9d Reinstallation often requires multiple individuals to xe2x80x9cswing the cover upxe2x80x9d, pivoting it on the one bolt that was left in and xe2x80x9ccatchingxe2x80x9d another bolt hole to secure the cover. This often results in personal injury when the cover catches someone""s finger in the process or abruptly swings down and strikes an individual. The present invention eliminates this unsafe practice and affords a safe method in which components may be removed and reinstalled.
3. The present invention permits installation and operation by a single individual.
4. The present invention utilizes a bolt-on installation and does not require welding for assembly and use. Installation may be affected by a single individual.
5. The present invention is portable. It may be used in more than one location. The prior art employed custom fabricated devices that were permanently fixed to the component being manipulated.
6. The present invention eliminates rigging to remove and reinstall components.
7. The present invention eliminates cranes, hoists, and/or other heavy machinery to remove and reinstall components.
8. The present invention provides access to components otherwise inaccessible by other means.
9. The present invention provides access to components that are located in confined areas and tight places.
10. The present invention is capable of removing, lifting, supporting, storing, lowering, and/or reinstalling components.
11. The invention may be used on ferrous and non-ferrous components such as but not limited to fiberglass and plastic components.
One skilled in the art will realize that these advantages may be present in some embodiments and not in others, as well as noting that other advantages may exist in the present invention that are not specifically listed above. Nothing in the above itemized list should be interpreted as limitive of the scope of the present invention.